Skift Take

The only way to travel through Bhutan is on a tour, which is benefiting Eastern Indian tour companies who are expanding their itineraries to attract the influx of tourists looking for the “last Shangri-La.”

Bhutan charges foreign tourists $250 a day as part of its tour package cost. Photo by Jean-Marie Hullot.

Tourism sector in Eastern India has started getting indirect gain out of Bhutan’s ambitious move to touch 1 lakh mark in premium class Foreign Tourist Arrival (FTA) by 2013 as this has already started boosting FTA in Eastern India too.

According to Bhutan Tourism Council officials, coming out of old restrictive era, the county branded in tourism world as ‘The Last Sangri-La’ has decided to increase its FTA but without compromising with own philosophy of high quality, high value but low volume thus low impact tourism.